The Hockey News’s Jason Chen posted an article which addresses a topic that I’ll admit I’ve been thinking about as well. He ponders whether the Red Wings’ fourth goaltender, Jack Campbell, might see some NHL playing time this upcoming season:
Campbell will likely back up Cossa, who was their top goalie in the AHL but not quite ready yet for a promotion [in Grand Rapids]. At some point, though, the Wings will have to decide who they want to call up. If Cossa is playing well and the Griffins are on a roll, Campbell might get the call.
Perhaps a change of scenery and a reset is what Campbell needs. The Oilers stint was disastrous, but he’s shown that he has the chops to play at this level, even for brief stretches.
It’s unlikely we’ll see Campbell much in 2024-25, barring some kind of miraculous, Masterton-type comeback. If the Wings play to their full potential and they are a competitive playoff team, is Campbell a streaming option?
Streaming goalies can be a risky proposition akin to catching a falling knife, like with Coyotes goalies last season when it was either a ton of saves or a ton of goals allowed, with very little in between. The same goes for streaming highly-touted young goalies, such as the Flames’ Dustin Wolf and the Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt, which yielded some (literally) wild results.
Continued; even with the Red Wings work their three-goaltender rotation all season long, we’ll probably see Campbell called up a handful of times.
At this point, Campbell needs to reestablish himself as a reliable starter at the AHL level, even if that’s in a 1B role behind Sebastian Cossa, but I’m sure that the 32-year-old wants to parlay this upcoming season into an NHL job somewhere.
